With The Onion’s ClickHole, The Internet Just Ate Itself

For those of you looking to lose even more hours in the maw of Internet emptiness, today The Onion has launched ClickHole, a wiseass answer to Buzzfeed's gaping vortex of clickbait, too-native ads, and the occasional hits of hard news.

Satirizing the incredulous headlines (e.g. "42 People You Won't Believe Exist") and odd-numbered listicles that drive insane amounts of traffic to BuzzFeed and its ilk, ClickHole's posts are probably sly enough to pass some readers unnoticed. Case in point: "5 Iconic Movie Scenes That Were Actually Fake."

It also sinks its teeth into gushing, celeb-centric slideshows. As the honest-to-gosh publisher of "The Best Celebrity Friends, Ever," we can do nothing but laugh at ClickHole's "8 Touching Pics Of Celebrities And Their Dads," which simply features photos of stars standing next to Patrick Stewart.

Another favorite is "16 Pictures Of Beyoncé Where She’s Not Sinking In Quicksand," in which Ms. Knowles definitely does not sink into quicksand. There's also a video of a dinosaur dancing behind the words "Racism is bad." As the headline notes, it makes a good point.

Taking a cue from Vox, ClickHole has its own explainer, of course: "We believe that each and every article — whether about pop culture, politics, Internet trends, or social justice — should be clicked on and shared by hundreds of millions of Internet users before they can even comprehend what they just read."

Summing up its core values, the site decrees, "All web content deserves to go viral."

If you listen closely, you can hear a thousand digital-brand strategists weeping with joy at the very thought of that.